This despite recent business figures which are positive, if not quite so good as in Germany. What’s going on?

Everybody believes governments are making up the figures, even when they aren’t

It’s going well for business, but not for people — the crisis has become a concentration/acceleration of the existing patterns of inequality.

‘man in the street’ experiences of recession — unemployment in particular — lag behind the state of business, which in turn lags behind financial markets. This is why the crisis began as a financial crisis: at first it seemed phony-war-like, something happening only in meaningless figures

People are using optimism/pessimism to make a political point. e.g. the left are exaggerating the crisis, as a means to criticize Sarkozy

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You are currently reading French pessimism about the crisis yet to come at
Dan O'Huiginn.